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Tag Archives: Rep. Bart Gordon

Congress returned to DC on Monday 11/15/2010 to begin a "lame duck" session . Congress, in particular the Senate, will find their agendas crowed with debate on several bills that need to be voted on before adjourning sine die sometime in December. Therefore, it seemed a good time to review the status of the bills that would affect the nanotech field.

H.R. 554, the "National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act of 2009" was introduced by Rep. Bart Gordon on 01/15/2009 and was passed without amendment by the House on 02/11/2009. After being received in the Senate, H.R. 554 was assigned to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Technology. It hasnot been reported out for debate by the full Senate.

H.R. 554, among various provisions, would have amended the reporting requirements of the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, directed the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office to create a publicly accessible database, created the National Nanotechnology Advisory Panel as a distinct entity with a subpanel that would consider the social, ethical, legal, environmental and workplace impact of nanotechnolgy, required the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to designate an associate director of that office as the Coordinator for Societal Dimensions of Nanotechnology with various duties, and would have defined nanotechnology and nanoscale as

NANOTECHNOLOGY- The term `nanotechnology’ means the science and technology that will enable one to understand, measure, manipulate, and manufacture at the nanoscale, aimed at creating materials, devices, and systems with fundamentally new properties or functions.’; …

The bill’s focus, as it’s title implies, is on reauthorizing the America COMPETES Act passed in 2007. Both the original act provided government support for innovation, research and development, increased funding for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM for short) in high schools and colleges, and assistance in getting the results of research and development out to the private sector, ultimately leading to the emergence of new industries and an expansion of the economy. The Reauthorization act would have expanded on this and would have included other areas, such as a reorganization of the National Institutes of Standards and Technology.

The House Committee on Science and Technology reported the bill out of committee with an amendment in the nature of a substitute; all of the language after the enacting clause was stripped out and new language substituted. Both the bill as introduced and the bill as reported to the House have the same language for Title I, "Science and Technology Policy", Subtitle A, "The National Nanotechnology Initiatives Amendments Act of 2010", which will be our focus here.

Section 102, "National Nanotechnology Program Amendments" would require, within 12 months of the bill’s enactment into …

The nanotechnology field is going to be losing a valued friend in Congress at the end of the 111th Congress in 2010. Rep. Bart Gordon’s office issued a press release today announcing that the Congressman would not be seeking reelection after the end of his current term. Earlier this year, Rep. Gordon introduced H.R. 554, the National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act of 2009, which was passed by the House on February 12, 2009 and was received in the Senate and referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The bill is still in that Committee.

While there is speculation that the Congressman is retiring due to polls that indicate a tougher re-election race than the Congressman has faced in recent years, we should take the Congressman’s stated reasons, that having reached the age of 60 he wants to move on to the next stage in life and spend time with his family, at face value and wish him a good and healthy retirement. His leadership on the House Committee on Science and Technology, where he has served as Chairman since 2007 and his support of nanotechnology will be much missed.…

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